by Douglas B. Stevenson, Esq.
Director, Center for Seafarers' Rights
csr@seamenschurch.org
SCI Executive Director, the Rev. David M. Rider, and Center
for Seafarers’ Rights Director Douglas B. Stevenson recently visited SCI’s
maritime ministry partners in Vitoria and Paranagua, Brazil. SCI and Brazilian partners established the
ministries to provide vital chaplaincy services for seafarers in ports where such
programs did not exist.
SCI’s work in Brazil
began in 1997 when it and the Espirito Santo Baptist Convention inaugurated a
new seafarers’ center in Vitoria,
Brazil. The Vitoria Seafarers’ Center was initiated
by a graduate of SCI’s chaplaincy training program Pastor Damivan dos Santos. In 2000, SCI along with the Espirito Santo
Baptist Convention and the Parana Baptist Convention commissioned Pastor
Damivan to establish a seafarers’ center in the bustling port of Paranagua.
Vitoria’s
maritime ministry is growing under the able leadership of SCI’s chaplaincy
training program graduate Lorena Marchesi Caetano. The Center has adapted from
one remote location to three mini-centers convenient to ports in Vitoria and Port Ubu to
more efficiently serve mariners.
In Paranagua, the center’s prime location results in a very
active center offering a wide range of services to seafarers and to the port
community in Paranagua. Both the Paranagua Seafarers’ Service
Center’s director, Pastor Luis Lucas and its port chaplain, Pastor Rivelino dos Santos, graduated from
SCI’s chaplaincy training program.
After visiting the Brazilian centers, David
Rider observed, "At our best, SCI employs 174
years of maritime experience to train port chaplains and to continue supporting
them around issues of spirituality, human dignity and seafarer rights. Thriving port ministries in Paranagua and Vitoria represent the
best of this tradition."
At the First Baptist Church with the port behind them, leaders discuss setting up a collaboartion with the Seafarers' Center in Vitoria. L-R Ailton dos Santos, Fernando Lopez, Lorena Marchesi, Rev. David Rider, and Pr. Eliomar de Jesus
SCI Executive Director David Rider briefs Vitoria
seminarians on maritime ministry vocations.